Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech
By Simon Maurice

The 613th Commandment

This week's twin parshiot, Nitzavim-Vayelech contains the final commandment of the Torah: "So now write this song for yourself" - which we take to mean that every Jew should write - or participate in writing - his own Torah.

The requirements for how a Torah should be written are very precise. Every letter must be surrounded by parchment - individualised - and cannot touch another, but by the same token, the letters that form a word must be grouped together so that they don't appear as individual letters.

In the same way, we as Jews have to take individual responsibility for observing the Torah and its precepts, and yet there is also a responsibility of one Jew to stand alongside another, so that we appear as a collective body and not merely a collection of individuals.

The Torah consists of 304,805 letters and the validity of a Sefer Torah depends on each and every letter. If even one letter is incorrect the whole of the Sefer Torah is compromised and, in the same way, every single Jew is a vital part of whole entity that is the Jewish People.

With Nitzavim-Vayelech we've almost reached the end of the Torah - yet we are also almost at the beginning again - and, with the New Year, comes the chance of being spiritually "re-born". Like the letters of the Torah and like the Torah as a whole, we will pray to Hashem as individuals but our praying is as a collective and, hopefully, our prayers for the year to come will be answered.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova.